James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I congratulate Deputy Devins on his appointment as Minister of State and Deputy O'Sullivan on her appointment as spokesperson on health.

I refer to Deputy Devins's comments on cutbacks at Sligo General Hospital and the manner in which it was done by the HSE. I castigated him at the time because he should have been in a position to effect some change but I acknowledge that he had concerns. Perhaps this is because he is a doctor and can see the effect of cutbacks. The Minister, Deputy Harney, could not see this last night and believes that nurses only take holidays in the summertime. Hence, we can get rid of all the nurses despite spending much money bringing nurses from the Philippines and India. It is equally upsetting to hear that none of the Fianna Fáil colleagues of Deputy Devins from the Sligo area appear concerned.

The cervical smear cancer screening programme was first mooted in 1999 and the roll-out was to begin the following year. Eight years later we are no further down the line. We have another target and another commitment. I question the commitment in light of outsourcing the reading of these smears to the United States. If we were intent on delivering this service we would establish the capacity to read the smears in this country. We have not done so. What will happen when we have a deluge of smears on the desks of pathologists and histopathologists? They will be unable to cope.

The Minister states that she only heard about the situation at Barringtons Hospital in August but the Department knew about it 19 months previously. It was passed from the Department to the HSE. All the lights are on in Hawkins House and in Naas but no one is at home. Nobody takes responsibility and the Minister does not know about it. Someone is not doing his or her job and this health service does not have proper leadership. It is not good enough. I do not wish to be emotive or to scaremonger but people are dying through lack of service. People close to me are terminally ill with cancer.

The Minister referred to the Medical Council. The Medical Council has no role in a situation where people are being referred up to Dublin from a private hospital only to be referred back down to Limerick. This is an issue within the control of hospital administration. As Deputy O'Rourke pointed out, we do not have proper control or accreditation over private hospitals and this situation highlights this fact. If this is to be addressed by HIQA then it had better get on the job quickly.

The Minister informed the House that the HSE told her that the radiotherapy facilities would be ready in 2010 yet the HSE's chief executive officer, Brendan Drumm, has stated it will not be possible to provide them by 2011 and the date will be 2015. He stated that the public-private procurement is a difficult way to achieve anything. His opinion is supported by the Department of Health and Children's hospital planning agency and the National Development Finance Agency. The Minister ignores all these people and tells this House something completely different to what they have stated publicly. I do not accept this.

I refer to the HSE press release which on careful reading is quite comical in some respects. It states there will be a transition of cancer services from the current settings and this will occur on a phased basis with patients being reassured that each transfer will be carried out in a planned manner. It states that services will be withdrawn sequentially from hospitals which do not meet the defined criteria. However, the next line states that as a result, the HSE has formally requested the following hospitals with low case volumes to no longer provide multidisciplinary symptomatic services with immediate effect. Where do all these patients go on Monday morning? Where do the patients at Naas General Hospital, Tullamore General Hospital, St. Columcille's Hospital and Mallow General Hospital go?

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